'Big Squirt Gun' Nearly Ready For Wildfires, But Questions Remain

A Boeing 747 cargo jet turned wildfire-fighting machine needed just 10 seconds to drop 20,000 gallons of water onto the runway of the Army's Aberdeen Test Center in Aberdeen, Md.

"A big squirt gun," the jet's captain, Cliff Hale, called it after showing off what the 747's owner calls "the Supertanker" for reporters and government officials last week.

The plane's developer, Evergreen International Aviation, and the U.S. Forest Service hope the plane will be dropping water and retardant on wildfires beginning in August. The company is negotiating an evaluation contract with the government that would give the jet a chance to squirt some wildfires.

The stop here was among 13 demonstrations in a coast-to-coast tour that began in April in Phoenix, Ariz., and is scheduled to end in Anchorage, Alaska.

Evergreen has been testing its Supertanker in the West, where it has met or exceeded federal requirements, said Robert McAndrew, president of Evergreen Supertanker Services. The Federal Aviation Administration must give final certification for the plane and a final major safety check will be conducted next month before it would enter active duty.

"We're all anxious to see how it does on a fire," McAndrew said.

If all goes well, Evergreen may have come up with a dramatic new way to battle wildfires and at the same time solve the government's ongoing problems with its aging air tanker fleet. This summer, the government would use the plane in varying terrain and vegetation, depending on location, logistics and requests from on-the-ground fire managers.

"Because it's so much larger, we're going to have to figure out where we can use it most safely," said Rose Davis of the National Interagency Fire Center. "I don't know if we're looking for a sea change with this new equipment, but that's part of what we're going to explore is how it goes into the mix of different aviation assets."

If an agreement is reached with Evergreen, the fire center will be charged with determining how best to use the 747 as part of its mission. The government does not expect the plane to change firefighting overnight, nor does it expect the 747 -- or any plane or helicopter -- to replace a presence on the ground.

"Aviation assets support ground firefighters," Davis said. "Air tankers don't put fires out."

But Evergreen says the 747 Supertanker's capacity and pressurized system has the ability to change firefighting and save money over the long run. The pressurized system -- which can be removed and reinstalled from the 747 in about a day, as required -- expels water, flame retardant or other products out of the bottom and can be regulated based on how much material is wanted in which locations. Swift fire containment promised

Unlike the traditional gravity-drop tankers, where tanker doors open on the plane's belly, the 747's airframe will not be affected when water is delivered, limiting wing and metal fatigue, a major factor in previous tanker crashes. In the race to construct the next generation of air tankers, Omni Air International is working on a DC-10 tanker utilizing the gravity-drop system.

Also unlike many of the older tankers grounded and never returned to service, the flying history of the Supertanker is not in question. According to Evergreen, this 747-200 was built in 1976 for Flying Tigers.

The P-3 Orions can drop about 3,000 gallons of water or retardant to a fire, while the 747 can deliver more than 20,000 gallons. "It's not like doubling the P-3," McAndrew said. "We're going to have seven times the capability for a fixed-wing plane."

And despite the higher costs for flying the 747, Evergreen believes the jumbo jet can save $100 million per year in firefighting costs in air and ground. "You can contain the fire that much sooner," McAndrew said.

In fiscal 2005, the federal government spent about $112 million on air tankers, helicopters and smokejumper aircraft fighting wildfires. That includes $26 million on air tankers alone. Overall, the federal government spent $966 million fighting 66,000 fires on 8.7 million acres of federal, state and private land.

But the fire center's Davis was skeptical of Evergreen's claim, saying it would be very difficult to measure any savings from using the 747.

"I don't know how you would evaluate that at all," Davis said. "Each tool is called on for each different fire. Each fire is different." How mangers choose to fight fires is based on several aspects, including location, time of day, positioning of assets and cost. "There's no standard way to box up a fire and say this is the way to attack it," Davis said. Initial attack success rate remains high

Despite the problems with the tanker fleet over the past few years, federal officials are quick to point out that the initial attack success rate has remained above 98 percent.

Two years ago this month, the Forest Service and Interior Department unilaterally terminated contracts of 33 large fixed-wing air tankers after reviewing a National Transportation Safety Board report on three crashes in 1994 and 2002.

The report criticized the lack of oversight to ensure the safety and airworthiness of the tankers, some of which date to World War II. While the safety board did not recommend grounding the fleet, the agencies and a blue ribbon panel on Federal Aerial Firefighting said retiring the aircraft would be in the best interest of public and employee safety.

Some of the fixed-wing tankers eventually returned to service, but the government has been forced to cobble together a fleet making greater use of single-engine air tankers (SEATs) and a variety of helicopters. The Forest Service says the revamped fleet has been just as successful when fighting fires as the older fleet with more large tankers, but acknowledges that using more of the smaller planes is more expensive over the long run.

With the old fleet in 2003, the federal agencies had an initial attack success rate of 98.2 percent, according to the Forest Service. In 2004, after the air tankers were grounded, the success rate was 99.1 percent, and then 98.5 percent in 2005.

At a Senate Forests Subcommittee hearing on the tanker fleet in February, James Hull, Texas state forester and president of the National Association of State Foresters, noted the relatively moderate national fire seasons over the past two years might be making the initial attack figures look better then in a more active year.

"We don't really know if we can continue to be effective with only 16-17 large, multi-engine air tankers, regardless of how many SEATs and Type 1 helicopters we have available," Hull told the committee. "The capabilities of each of these aircraft types are not entirely interchangeable. Each has specific strengths and weaknesses."

This year, the National Interagency Fire Center has 16 heavy air tankers on contract -- nine Lockheed P2-V Neptunes and seven Lockheed P-3 Orions. Selling the supertanker

Evergreen officials are hoping this summer's evaluation contract will lead to a long-term deal they say will save the federal government money over the long-term, despite the higher operating costs of the jumbo jet over the smaller tankers.

"Our goal was not to come up with the cheapest tanker in the world but the most effective one," said Sam White, senior vice president of Evergreen Supertanker Services.

Having spent $40 million developing the tanker, Evergreen officials are actively considering other ways to make money with the plane. As part of its nationwide tour, the company is promoting the 747's potential for oil spill containment, chemical decontamination and even weather modification.

"We have people thinking now that we have the aircraft, what can we use it for?" McAndrew said.

Evergreen has had preliminary conversations with the Coast Guard and oil industry for spill containment, where the plane would drop chemicals that congeals oil slicks making it easier for boats to use nets to collect the oil. Former military C-130s, which have a 2,000 gallon capacity, often perform this task, White said.

The company is also studying the potential to use the more than 20,000 gallon capacity for weather modification. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been using computer simulations to predict the ability of using chemicals over a hurricane or developing storm to limit the severity, according to White. Evergreen says the 747 has the potential to bring the severity of a hurricane down a full category.

"They proved the theory," White said of NOAA. "The problem was there was never something that could deliver enough product."

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